Defending Earth-Searching for Death Feeders (18 page)

“The nose slits are used to make audible sounds.”

Kyle’s eyes narrowed, “What?”

“I’ve heard the Feeder at my community make a loud wailing sound out into the wilds. The sound appeared to come from its nose slits.” Kyle sighed and Nicole said, “What are you thinking?”

“The Feeders can only survive by killing others. It can’t grow food because they have no way to consume it; it can only kill for its meals. I can’t see any way to rehabilitate any of them.”

Nicole tilted her head, “Why would you want to do that?”

“Christopher Stone learned the hard lesson of going out to exterminate a species.”

“He was wrong, Kyle. The Goran are not natural born killers. This species is evil and wherever it goes, slavery and death follows.”

“I know that, Willow. But this means that we have to come up with a plan to kill every one of them in existence.”

“You could gather them up and put all of them on the same planet. They can eat each other.”

Kyle shook his head, “Would you do the same with every carnivore on your planet, Nicole?”

“They aren’t intelligent like the Feeders. They’re animals that can be avoided. The Feeders can’t be avoided.”

“Those Grondon come pretty close to being intelligent. The Feeders are a psychic carnivore and they really have no choice but to kill in order to survive. Unfortunately, they see us as prey and we have no choice but to kill them to defend ourselves.”

“The transport has collected all of its shuttles and is closing its landing bay doors.”

“Amber, get a light signature from it. We’ll follow it using the Light Drive.”

“I’ve collected one from both of them.”

“We’ll follow the first one once we’ve given it a good lead. Launch a Micro-probe to follow the second transport.” Kyle removed the image of the Death Feeder from his monitor and looked at the planet. The newly arrived Feeders were killing beings in their territories who represented a threat. Willow was playing their thoughts over the loud speaker as they were examined and then consumed by their new masters. He sighed. There was no getting around it, this species had to be exterminated…if that were possible.

“First transport has skipped out.” Kyle nodded and continued to stare at the monitor. “Second transport has just activated its stardrive…it just skipped out as well.”

“Amber, are you tracking that first transport?”

“I am.”

“Are you able to determine which galaxy it’s headed toward?”

“Not really. It’s headed toward a large cluster and it’s too early to determine which one it’s targeted.”

“Get a light signature from one of the galaxies in that cluster and let’s move ahead of that ship. We can take a look around before it arrives.”

“I’ve selected the largest galaxy. The signature is on your panel.” Kyle nodded and pressed the light drive. The Light Ship emerged into normal space at the edge of a giant ball galaxy and Nicole yelled, “THIS MUST BE FEEDER CENTRAL. I’M SENSING TOO MANY TO COUNT!!”

“Amber, pull the antenna inside the force field.”

“Done, why do you want me to do that Willow?”

“The Feeders in this galaxy are linked. I don’t want to risk their detecting the antenna.”

“Should we skip out, Willow?”

“Not just yet; it appears they are not detecting us. It appears their entire focus is on the interior of the galaxy. Nicole, are you able to see where they’re located?”

“There’s too many places to count.”

“I’m going to put an image of this galaxy on your monitor and I want you to use your controller to color the areas that you sense have Feeder Planets.” Nicole nodded and started coloring huge swaths of the galaxy purple. As the images changed, she continued to color the areas on her monitor. Kyle watched her and wondered how she was able to sense each area as it appeared on her monitor. She saw him staring at her and shrugged, “I don’t know how I do it but as Willow puts quadrants on my monitor, I’m able to somehow see the Feeders in it.”

Kyle looked at the huge wall monitor just above the viewport and saw the entire outer edge of the galaxy was colored purple indicating it was populated by Feeders. Then Nicole stopped coloring the images Willow sent to her panel. Image after image appeared and Nicole shook her head. “What’s going on? Are we too far out for you to sense them in those images?”

“No, I just don’t sense any.”

“Willow?”

“If what she’s seeing is accurate, there are no Feeders in the central core of this galaxy. They’re all located on the outer edges.”

“Why?”

“We should skip in to the core and see if she’s missing them.”

“Amber, pick a star close to the core.”

“Got one.”

Kyle pressed the light drive and the ship disappeared. It entered normal space outside a planetary system circling a Red Giant Star. He quickly turned around and looked at Nicole. She was shaking her head. “Willow?”

“There is a civilization in this system and they’re not feeders.”

“Why haven’t the Feeders conquered them?”

“I have no idea.”

“Why didn’t the linked Feeders see us?”

“I’m going to suggest something and I hope you don’t think I’m crazy.”

Kyle looked at Nicole and said, “Go ahead, Willow”

“We know the Feeders don’t like coming into contact with each other. We’ve heard several of them say it.”

“Yeah, so?”

“The Feeders in this galaxy are constantly linked and all of their attention is directed at the center of this galaxy. That’s why they didn’t see us outside the edge.”

“Why would they be…” Suddenly, Kyle saw it. “They’re keeping something trapped inside the central core.”

“That’s what I believe, Kyle. There’s something in the center of this galaxy that is a huge danger to the Feeders. They have to stay linked to keep it contained. I’m also hearing the Feeders discussing a disturbance near a Red Giant.”

“Does that mean they see us?”

“They don’t know what it is. I’m adding power to the force field.”

Kyle gripped the arms of his command chair and, after a minute, Willow said, “The increased power to the thought blocking system has caused them to lose us.” Kyle blew out a breath and quit squeezing the arms on his chair.

“Willow, will the increase in power to our force field make us visible to the civilization in this system?”

“The Dark Cloud still surrounds the ship…Amber, extend the antenna for a moment and take a look around us.” Kyle waited and an instant later, the Light Ship suddenly appeared a thousand light years outside the galaxy.

“What’s going on, Amber!” Kyle saw his monitor illuminate and his eyes flew wide open. A huge wave of Black and Silver colored ships was moving toward them at incredible speed. They would have been on top of them in just a few more moments.

“Sorry, Kyle. I couldn’t wait to tell you.”

“That’s alright! Thank God, you reacted fast enough!”

“I dropped a Micro-probe in the barrier before I fled the scene. I’m getting the images now.” Kyle looked up at the wall monitor and saw thousands of giant warships swarming the area they had just skipped out of. “Those ship’s force fields are just as strong as ours. I can’t really make sense of the things on their hulls. They have to be some kind of weapon.”

Kyle watched the monitor and the huge ships backed away from the area and ten of them swept some kind of bright blue beam through it. Kyle’s visor dimmed at the brilliance of the beams and the probes feed went dark for an instant. It came back on line and Kyle shook his head, “What kind of energy was that?”

“GET THE PROBE OUT OF THERE NOW!!”

Kyle winced at the volume and Amber said, “I’ve moved it. What’s going on, Willow?”

“Those ships have activated their scanners and we can’t risk them seeing that probe in the barrier.”

“Why not?”

“Kyle, those ships are more technologically advanced than the Alliance and the beings on them make the Feeders look like kittens.”

“What?”

“I turned off my telepath system until Amber extended the antenna. I listened for a moment and then shut it down instantly when I heard a brief series of thoughts from those ships. Those beings are evil in the worst possible way. They will eradicate any civilization they can find just for the enjoyment of doing it. If they discover the barrier, they’ll skip out of here and get outside the ring of Feeders holding them in the core.”

“What were their thoughts like?”

“Rage and anger toward the universe. They long to kill and the more species they can attack, the more they like it. They rage at the Feeders for keeping them imprisoned in this galaxy. They’ve killed every living being in the core and long to take their killing to other galaxies.”

“Oh that’s just great!”

Nicole looked at Kyle, “Why do you say that?”

“What happens if we do somehow manage to kill all the Feeders? What happens here if we do?”

“Trust me on this one, Kyle. The Feeders are nothing compared to the savagery of what I heard in those being’s thoughts.”

Nicole looked at her panel, “I wonder how many of them there are locked up in the core.”

“I think I have an answer to that.” Kyle and Nicole looked up as Amber said, “As the probe skipped out, it took images of the space it flew through. This one is interesting. I’m going to put it on the image of the galaxy.” The image of the galaxy appeared and the huge purple colored outer edge appeared. Two hundred light years inside the purple border, a bright silver border appeared. The view moved in at incredible speed and they saw vast fleets of the Black and Silver Ships in formation.

“How many?”

“I estimate more than two billion, Kyle.”

Nicole shook her head, “If they find their way out of this galaxy, they’ll probably attack the Feeders. We may have a very long time before they show up at the Alliance.”

Kyle shook his head, “No, they will get out of Feeder space faster than you can imagine to avoid being captured again. If we can assume Feeder Space is beyond this galaxy in the direction we were traveling, then they will run toward the direction of the Alliance. There’s no way the Feeders can catch them if they escape, their ships aren’t fast enough.” Kyle looked at Nicole, “If the Feeders chase them, they’ll follow them all the away to our civilization.”

“So what do we do about this?”

“Now we have to learn how to kill two different species before we can start taking either of them on. Our job just got a great deal harder.”

“Willow, thanks for keeping us out of trouble.”

“You’re welcome; what do you want to do now?”

“Amber, put that first Transport’s light signature on my panel. We still need to see what we’re facing with the Feeders.” Kyle saw the code appear and he pressed the light drive leaving the nightmare galaxy behind.”

• • •

The Light Ship entered normal space and Amber extended the antenna. The transport was above a planet it was sending shuttles down to the surface. “Where are we?”

“We’re in a galaxy about a million light years toward the Alliance from that last galaxy.”

“Nicole, can you sense them?”

“There are more of them here than the last galaxy.”

“Then we can assume this galaxy has been conquered long ago by the Feeders. Amber, I want you to start moving from galaxy to galaxy and let’s see how many are populated by Feeders. Nicole, when we enter normal space, tell Willow what you sense and she’ll plot it on a star map. Amber, start skipping.”

“Before we start that process, we should do something else.”

“What is that, Willow?”

“We need to determine if the galaxies we’re plotting have warships in them. This galaxy poses no danger to us because the Feeders here have no ships to come and attack us. Nicole, can you sense them in ships versus living on planets?”

“I believe so. I don’t sense any ships in this galaxy.”

Kyle had a sudden thought, “Did you sense any ships in that nightmare galaxy?”

“I did but they were all in orbit above planets. Why is that important?”

“I believe the Feeders must get in their ships and occasionally push those monsters back into the core.”

“Why don’t they just go in and kill them?”

“I don’t really know. Something must be operating to prevent it.”

“Could it be the gravity of the central black hole disrupts their link?”

“What?”

“I don’t know, it’s the only thing different from the rest of the galaxy.”

“Willow, is what Nicole’s suggesting possible?”

“I have no idea. I don’t know if a large black hole would disrupt thoughts.”

“That’s something we need to check out. Nicole, did that thought come from somewhere else?” Nicole focused for a moment, looked at Kyle, and nodded.

“Kyle, I’ve done some analysis of the weapons used by the Creatures in the Core and it appears the beams they used are gravity generated.”

“Gravity beams?”

“That’s what I see. We’ll have to turn this recording over to our scientists and see what they can determine.”

“Get the information in a light probe and send it out now.” Kyle looked at Nicole, “Are you ready?”

“I am.”

Kyle felt a bump and knew the light probe had skipped out. He pressed the light drive and the ship appeared outside the edge of another galaxy.

• • •

The First Eater hated his position. He knew he was being punished by the Great Eaters for some unknown sin and he hoped they would relieve him of this dismal assignment soon. He detested having to stay linked to the billions of his species to keep the Beasts pinned in this galaxy. This punishment was too much. He couldn’t figure out what he did to cause this punishment.

He looked into the core and saw the Beasts were firing their weapons at the space where he had detected a disturbance earlier. He focused on them and watched closely but nothing appeared to happen. They swept that area of space with their weapons and nothing exploded or gave any indication of something being there. Hummm…they detected something as well. He thought about the disturbance and tried to determine if it were caused by thoughts or something else. He shook his head and looked at the billions of Beast Warships that had slowly moved closer to the borders of his territory. He blew out a breath and ordered the forces on the planets to move into their ships. The Beasts would need to be taught again that they should stay away. He hoped he was able to kill enough of them this time so they would delay their next move.